Emanuel's $15 increase would be $60 for 184,000 cars, vans and SUVs

October 13, 2011|By Hal Dardick and David Heinzmann, Tribune reporter

An SUV in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood sports a city sticker on Thursday. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed lowering the weight definition of a large passenger vehicle to anything over 4,000 pounds, which would mean 184,000 more vehicles would be subject to higher sticker fees. (Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune)

When Mayor Rahm Emanuel trotted out his city vehicle sticker fee hike, he billed it as a modest $15 increase aimed at those who drive SUVs and trucks that cause the most damage to city streets.

What the mayor didn't highlight is a change he's pushing in how those large passenger vehicles are defined. Instead of setting the bar at 4,500 pounds, as it is now, Emanuel wants it set at 4,000 pounds.

Such a change means 184,000 more Chicago vehicles would fall under a pricier sticker class. And their owners would pay $60 more for a sticker.

Minivans like the Dodge Grand Caravan and Honda Odyssey and midsize SUVs like the Honda Pilot and Kia Sorento will join outsize gas guzzlers already subject to the higher sticker fee such as Hummer H1s, the GMC Suburban and Land Rover Discovery. Vehicle weights depend on the year and model.

Emanuel officials acknowledged Thursday that moving the goal posts on vehicle weights makes up the bulk of the $14.8 million in additional vehicle money the mayor hopes to secure to help erase a nearly $636 million budget deficit.

The administration's defense: Three-quarters of city drivers won't be affected. Those who would get hit for more money have vehicles that cause the most damage to city streets. And the money would be used for street repairs.

Currently, owners of cars, vans and SUVs that weigh less than 4,500 pounds pay $75 for a vehicle sticker. Those above that now pay $120.

The large passenger vehicle fee would rise to $135 under Emanuel's plan. For those now paying $75, that's an 80 percent increase.

Pickup truck stickers would rise by $20 to $200, and commercial truck stickers would climb by $30 to $450.

Fewer than 90,000 city vehicles are now classified as large passenger vehicles. That would increase to 273,912 under the new plan, according to the city comptroller.

Absent the weight change, the city would collect $2.8 million more. The weight change adds another $12 million.

For Brooke Mix, who drove her van to a Walgreens in Humboldt Park on Thursday afternoon, the news that her 4,200-pound vehicle would rate a possible $135 vehicle sticker felt like piling on.

An unemployed mother who shares the van with her husband and disabled parents, Mix said she's already struggling with the expenses of keeping an automobile in the city.

"We simply can't do it, and we're going to end up with 100 more tickets," she said. Mix added that she believes Emanuel should cut low-income families like hers a break on the increases.

When the family moved to Chicago a few years ago from Battle Creek, Mich., they struggled to deal with the various vehicle taxes and parking restrictions in the city and parking tickets piled up.

"That's a burden for people like me," said Mix, who lost her job recently and whose husband is in school. "We were barely scraping by on my job."

Leading the charge against the effort is City Clerk Susana Mendoza, who says she is taking Emanuel's challenge to find other ways to find the $14.8 million his proposal would generate to fill city potholes.

By her calculations, the 2011 Ford Taurus — which is built in a plant on the city's Far South Side — would be among the vehicles that would get hit next year with a $135 charge.

"Obviously a Ford Taurus is not an SUV, so I think it is going to be hard to explain to a constituent that, 'You are driving a sedan to get your kids back and forth to school or to get to work and now you are going to have to pay $135 instead of $75,'" Mendoza said.

"I don't think that's fair at all, and I don't think that's necessary at all, because I think there are better options for us in terms of going after money."

Although Mendoza doesn't have a vote, some aldermen, including George Cardenas, 12th, are getting behind the clerk's effort.

"This fee stuff, at some point, we've got to end the ankle biting," Cardenas said. "We just have to. We've just got to find a different way to do this."

Cardenas said he supported one idea Mendoza is exploring: boosting fines for people who don't buy vehicle stickers to $200 from $120.

"If we hit the people that are the scofflaws ... if we double the fines for them, I think we can get the funds and make it palatable," Cardenas said.

Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, said the mayor needs to do more to make clear who the sticker fee changes would affect. But the changes are reasonable, he added.

"There needs to be extensive publicity about exactly what types of automobiles are being covered by the new rate increase," Moore said. "When it comes to minivans, they do cause more wear and tear on the streets, and they do by and large, emit more carbon, so they should be, in my opinion, taxed at a higher rate."

His defense echoed the mayor's rationale for the increases.

"It's estimated that 80 percent of the damage to Chicago's streets is caused by the small share of heavy vehicles like trucks and SUVs," Emanuel said Wednesday during his budget address. "So we are proposing a modest increase for heavy vehicles that do the most damage."

Although aldermen and the mayor are sure to hear gripes about any increase, Mendoza could get the brunt of it, even though she only sells the stickers.

"I'm going to get stuck wearing the jacket on this, but I want to be very clear to people that I'm not for this and that we do have alternative ideas to try to close the budget," Mendoza said. "I don't think the way to do it is, 'Let's raise $14 million by turning Ford Tauruses into SUVs.' I just don't think it's the way to go about it."